Ratchet&Clank: Lost beyond
by Wolfwaffe
Summary: Ratchet and Clank recieve a rather distressed and garbled message from Nefarious, begging them to come and help him just this once, but when they leave Apogee station behind, they suddenly awaken in some mysterious world, with no memories of how they got there, and mysterious Shadow accusses them of "unleashing chaos"... T for some violence and some cursing later on. WIP title.
1. I Land of Shadows

_Author's note:_

 _English is not my native language, so i may have some issues with sentence construction._

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"Ratchet? Ratchet, wake up!"

Clank's voice sounded distressed as he did his best to shake unconscious lombax up. Finally, his friend let out pained moan and slowly opened one eye.

"Ugh… Heya, Clank…" he slowly reached for his head and rubbed his temples, "Pal… what a splitting headache I have… What happened?"

"I was hoping that you can clarify this," said Clank, "You see, for some reason all of my memories of last three days are…" he made a pause and looked away, as if in shame, "…gone. Completely gone."

"Heck, same here," Ratchet sighed, "I'm not sure... Can you tell me if there's something with me? I feel like something's missing..."

"Well, for once, your armor and flight cap is gone," said Clank, prompting a pained sigh from his fuzzy friend, "But you still got your new work pants, raritanium-nosed boots and magnetic harness."

"That's something at least," lombax tried to sit up, slowly regaining his vision, "Well, what's your last memory?.."

"Last thing I remember you promising miss Talwyn that you'll return after you're done with doctor Nefarious, after he asked us to come see him – and he sounded panicked during the whole thing - then boarding Aphelion and leaving Apogee station… And that's about that," said his robotic companion.

"Yeah… That's all I remember as well… Well… Let's look around then, shall we?" Ratchet slowly stood up, feeling a bit nauseous, "Maybe we'll find… I don't know, anything that will help us remember? Or anything at all?"

The surroundings were… weird. They ended up in some sort of narrow ravine, sitting on a cliff on the side of it, somewhat below the top, but still a long way to the bottom. On the edge of a cliff was a flimsy-looking fence, and strange statues depicting cat-like humanoid with arms crossed on their chest were scattered all over the flat surface of this cliff. The cliff itself was covered in sand, soft and oddly… temperatureless. Well, at least it wasn't hot or cold. Speaking of which, Ratchet realized that surrounding air is also nor hot nor cold – just of his body temperature or so. A thick gray fog surrounded the cliff and filled the ravine, making it impossible to see how deep it was. Above them was a thick layer of dark grey clouds. Everything seemed so dull and grey. And, built into the side of a ravine was a strange small building with statue of a kneeled skeleton on top.

Since there was nothing better to do, duo went towards this building. It was some sort of tunnel entry, but the door - at least that what the massive stone slab blocking the way seemed to be - just won't open.

"Oh don't tell me we're stuck already!" Ratchet moaned, leaning on the door, his headache not helping at all.

"Perhaps there is something that can open the door," said Clank, "We should look around"

"You go, pal" the lombax sighed, massaging his temples, "I'm not feeling too good… Just please… be careful, will ya?"

Clank nodded in response and went around the building, and just as he turned around the corner, he literally stumbled upon a switch.

"Oof!" little robot fell on the sand, kicking it up and revealing red lever buried in it, "Ratchet? I believe I found something," and, not waiting for lomax to reply, pulled the lever. A second later he regretted that, as he heard Ratchet gasp, overshadowed by screeching of stone, and another second later he heart body fall on the ground. Clank rushed back, and was relieved to see that his friend simply fell when the door slid down.

"I am sorry, Ratchet. I did not expect it to open so suddenly," he said, placing his hand on his chest.

"Hey, it's okay, pal," Ratchet smiled and stood up, shaking sand and dust off his hands and pants, "Well, let's go in, shall we?"

They walked through long dark tunnel, and eventually reached a turn that led them to a t-junction. But, unlike the tunnel itself, this place was dimly lit with grayish orange light radiating from tall lamp posts, and just near the corner was a portrait of someone. Ratchet never seen species like this… well, the closest he saw to it was Qwark, but this one was different. For starters, facial features were much, much more feminine and subtle, more like Talwyn's face. The skin of the creature was pale, and it had long sandy blonde hair. Her – Ratchet decided it was female - eyes were dark hazel and filled with sadness, and she was covering her cheek with her palm.

"I wonder who is that," mumbled Clank while rubbing his chin.

As it turned out, they came to a circling corridor, which led to the tunnel from one side and to a different room on the other. This corridor was full of paintings – locations and people, all unfamiliar to Ratchet and Clank. The made a full circle, before deciding to check the other room. As the walked in, a dark figure appeared from the shadows. Ratchet reached out for his trusty Omniwrench.

"Greetings, Ratchet. Greetings, Clank," said the figure in soft, but at the same time, deep and powerful voice, raising his arm slightly, as if giving them a sign to stop.

"What? Who are you?" Ratchet hesitated to pull his wrench, staring at the figure. It definitely was a humanoid in shape, and was twice as tall as Ratchet, but other than that lombax couldn't make anything out. It was just that – a dark humanoid figure in some sort of cloak. No glowing teeth or red eyes of doom. Just a dark figure.

"That doesn't matter now…" Said this stranger, slowly lowering his arm, "Mind that I wish you no harm…"

"Well that's great I guess?" said lombax as his ear twitched.

"Perhaps you could help us, sir?" Clank chimed in, hopping off Ratchet's back and slowly walking to the stranger, "Can you tell us where we are? We seem to have… lost some of our memories."

"Honestly though, this place looks like some sort of underworld" Ratchet giggled.

"Underworld? Well, you can put it this way, yes…" said the stranger, making the duo stare at him, "But there is a catch, however…" It seemed that whoever that was was smiling, "This… Is my world…" lombax and robot looked at the figure with skepticism, "I have created it all by myself. And you are on my territory now."

"Pff, whatever. Are you all alone here?" Ratchet asked.

"No, just recently... Since you two fools have unleashed the chaos on me." the Shadow figure glared on them – Ratchet felt it rather than saw, "I barely managed to trap those spirits, and you two… Well, now I'm trapped in here," the Shadow made a step towards lombax and robot, fist clenched and raised menacingly.

"B-but… We don't even know what we did wrong!" Ratchet exclaimed, raising his arms and slowly backing from the Shadow, "Last thing we know is we were contacted by doctor Nefarious, and…"

"I could have dealt with that myself!" the Shadow cut him off, "But since you two have started this mess, you'll have to deal with it!" he snapped his fingers and Ratchet's ears picked up screeching somewhere behind, in the corridor with paintings, "I have opened the portal to the very heart of chaos… _Ariadnah_ , Woman from the Painting will wait you there" A painting frame floated from the wall to the Shadow's side. Painting depicted a woman in red skintight leather pants, jacket, gloves and high-heel boots. Her hair was dyed red with yellow streaks, and on her face was a blank red mask with small holes for eyes. And her eyes seemed... unnaturally black.

"What about her, sir?" Said Clank.

"She will try to misguide you. She will lie to you; she will try to confuse you. But, no matter what she does, you must bring me the chaos gem. Understood?" The duo nodded, and all the sudden, the Shadow disappeared.

"Impressive," Clank admitted.

"Yeah, I can't do _that_ ," Ratchet sighed, "Well, let's go look where this portal to the heart of chaos is?"

It didn't take them much time, as portal was right back at entrance junction, on the opposing side of the portrait of pale female. Through the wavy, mercury-like surface of the portal Ratchet saw dark, eerie mansion - that was when lombax noticed that the portal was right next to the painting of the same dark, eerie mansion.

"Well, here goes nothing, I guess" lombax sighed and turned to his mechanical friend, "You ready, pal?"

"I'm not sure, Ratchet" Clank replied, concerned, "But it doesn't seem like we have a choice right now, do we?"

"Yeah. Well…" Ratchet reached his hand to the portal and touched the surface. He felt strange tension, as if he was touching stretched, warm rubber, and, gathering all his courage, he pushed on the surface. It gave in all the sudden, making lombax yelp in surprise and fall face first into the portal. For a moment he felt like he was stuffed into taffy mass, and next moment he found himself painfully faceplanting on a cold stone pathway in front of the mansion he saw from the other side.

"Owww... That certainly was an interesting experience…" he said standing up. There was no way back now, and the only place they could go was the mansion.


	2. II Dead Mansion

_A/N:_ _English is not my native language, so i may have some issues with sentence construction. Also, I'm unsure if I should keep the rating or bump it up because... well, stuff in this and some following chapters.  
_

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It took Ratchet a moment to actually notice that in his fall he slightly damaged his nose and upper lip. He realized that when he felt something leaking on his chin. He reflexively reached to wipe it off, and instantly regretted that – while his nanotech was fixing the damage undisturbed he didn't feel a thing, but as soon as he touched his nose he felt burning pain in his nose and lip. It made him hiss painfully.

"Are you alright?" Clank asked from behind.

"Y-yeah… just smashed my nose and lip a bit on the path when I landed here," he replied, still hissing in pain, "What is up with this?"

"With what?" Clank detached himself and walked in front of lombax, "Oh dear, that does not look good" he said seeing Ratchet's bleeding nose.

"Nah, it's fine, should be fixed soon. Still hurts a lot." Ratchet smiled for a moment, then frowned, "So, what do you think about our situation? Because I already don't like this venture!"

"What do you mean?" Clank tilted his head slightly, narrowing one eye.

"You know what I mean, pal," he checked his nose again. It didn't hurt as much now, "This new 'friend' of ours. he didn't even explained anything, just bulldozed us right away! 'You unleashed chaos!' Ugh."

"Well… What if we indeed did something wrong?" zoni robot shrugged, "We do miss some of our memories, remember?"

"Yes, that I remember, thank you very much!" Ratchet frowned even further, and his tail slightly jerked sideways, "I also remember that it was Nefarious who got us into this mess!"

"Perhaps we should watch his message again?" Clank suggested, "What if there is some information we've missed the first time?"

"Alright, if you insist. I doubt it will help though."

Clank opened his chest compartment and pulled out communicator screen. A few button taps later he started the playback of Nefarious' message.

"LAWRENCE! Is this thing on?!" the doctor yelled to the side, and, dissatisfied with unheard offscreen answer yelled again, with notes of fear in his voice, "THIS ISN'T FUNNY, LAWRENCE!" Robotic scientist then looked into the camera nervously. Machinery in his head dome was running at faster pace, but somewhat erratic. He nervously twisted his thumbs and said straight into the camera, "H-hey, Ratchet, a-agent Clank? Um… As much as I hate asking for help – more so asking a squishie for help – and even more so asking YOU, my nemesis for help – Well…" He nervously turned around, looking tense. The transmission went static for a moment and returned back shortly, mid-speech, "…ess I went a bit too far, messed up real bad, and now the whole UNIVERSE is in danger! So I'll be somewhat grateful if you GET HERE NOW!" The transmission went static again, and, for a split second, a red something flashed on screen, before returning to normal, just long enough for doctor to transmit coordinates, finishing it with panicked yell "No! It's almost here! Please hurry, I BEG YOU! GAAAH-RUN-LAWRENCE!", then it abruptly ended.

"Well that wasn't helpful at all," Ratchet sighed, and finally decided to estimate their surroundings.

The place they were in now seemed like some sort of estate. Large, two-story mansion stood proud on small hill, surrounded by high brick fence. Behind them was a huge, ominous grate gate, from which the stone pathway led to the mansion. The pathway split halfway, and branched path led to small, overgrown gazebo. It was nighttime, stars were visible through thin layer of clouds, the air was slightly cold, and a weird, bluish haze covered the distance. Lomax shivered a little.

"Well, Ratchet? What do you think we should do now?"

"Let's go check the gazebo first," he replied, unsure, "Might be something useful there."

Clank nodded in agreement and jumped onto Ratchet's back.

Inside the gazebo were two broken patio chairs, a table with large, rusty key on top, and…

"Is that a… gun?" lombax asked, picking up a long, rifle-like weapon from the ground. It was too big to hold in one hand, yet it missed the side foregrip Ratchet was used to, but he quickly realized that it had a foregrip right under the barrel.

"Who does that?" he asked, and, aiming at the wall in the distance, pulled the trigger.

BANG!

The recoil threw gun butt into lombax's shoulder, ramming it hard, making him yelp and drop the gun. He rubbed his slightly bruised shoulder, and looked at the wall, where he saw a number of dents. This made him realize that, one: the gun was a shotgun; two, it had one hell of recoil, and three, it did not have any stock. Ratchet picked gun back up, and, this time holding the gun more firmly, he pulled the trigger again. Nothing happened. It took him a few more moments to realize that he had to pull foregrip towards himself, and then push it back to eject spent shell, and a few more moments to find a way to open shotgun's magazine. When he did, he counted shells he had – one was loaded in the chamber, and eight more were in the tube-like magazine below the barrel.

Taking shotgun and key with them, Ratchet and Clank moved to the mansion entrance. It looked oddly like a square bracket, the entrance located at central piece, and two side wings protruding forward. Ratchet stood in front of the entrance, looking at the double door before him, hesitating. Finally, he inserted the key into the lock, but before he could even start turning it, the doors slammed open, and invisible force sucked Ratchet in, sending him face first to meet the carpet on the floor, as doors slammed closed behind them.

"Ouch," Ratchet slowly stood up, rubbing his nose. This time it was much better, since carpet was much softer than stone he faced when he arrived. At least his gun was with him still.

They were at the entrance hall, in front of them was a corridor that connected wings of the mansion, two doors visible from the entrance, one of which slightly open. On the far right side of the corridor was another double-door, but this one had glass in it. On the far left, another door – but this one looked like it was carved from solid stone, with strange glyph carved into it.

The mansion itself looked well-cared for and new, as if someone just finished with renovations – but for whatever reason, everything seemed to yell "ABANDONED" at the duo. The sense of abandonment was everywhere – from well-glued wallpaper and carpets on the floor, to the dull, lukewarm atmosphere around them. Ratchet suddenly felt like he was back in Prog's orphanage – only he felt much safer THERE, even with Nethers on their backs. Here he felt uneasy here. In fact, he almost jumped hearing Clank jump down from his back. His fur on the back of his neck rose.

"Are you alright?" came the question from Clank.

"I'm… not sure…" lombax replied, ears drooping low, "I don't like this place, Clank. At all."

"I… understand" said zoni robot, to Ratchet's surprise, "I don't like this place either. It gets on my circuits."

"Just… Let's go and find this chaos gem before… anything happens."

Ratchet went to slightly opened door, and pushed it open. What he saw inside was… unpleasant. He felt how something in his stomach rise to his throat, and quickly turned away, closing his eyes.

"Shit… What the hell, that's so sick!" he mumbled, trying to calm his stomach, breath and heart.

Curious, Clank walked and looked into the room and saw a bathtub. Not understanding what scared his friend, robot walked closer and jumped up, activating his helipack to peek inside.

He instantly regretted that.

Bathtub was full of water mixed with blood. But that was not the thing Clank was trying to burn away from his memory right now. In this terrifying bath laid a skinless, decomposing body, staring on the ceiling with empty sockets.

Clank was so shocked he instantly disabled his helipack, falling flat on his butt, making loud clanking noise, and scaring poor Ratchet to the bone.

Clank ran from the bathroom, and closed the door.

"Thanks," Ratchet muttered, still feeling sick, "What… What was that about? This is so sick!"

Clank did not reply. Instead, he gently patted Ratchet's leg. Lombax kneeled and hugged little robot, "I don't want to be here anymore, Clank…"

After a few minutes, Ratchet finally calmed down a bit, and decided to check second door. It led to another bathroom, or, more precise, washroom – it contained a sink and toilet bowl. The smell inside was putrid, and something like oversized mold was growing on floor and walls and even ceiling. Neither Ratchet nor Clank wanted to go inside, but, to their horror, they heard some unnatural noise coming from bathroom. Then, the door started shaking, and, before Clank could say anything, terrified lombax grabbed him and dashed inside the washroom, closing the door behind them. The duo heard a door opening, footsteps outside, and then some weird noise – and then silence. As soon as silence set in, Ratchet kicked the door open, and ran into the corridor. He fell on his knees and had to let whatever was in his stomach out.

And for once, Clank was glad he did not have olfactory receptors.

While his lombax friend was busy barfing, he watched his back. He also noted two things – first, the bathroom door was open, and second – the stone door was, for lack of better wording, shattered to pieces. Curious, Clank made a few steps and suddenly he felt something in his circuits. He jumped and hovered up, trying to look into the bathtub from the corridor.

The body was gone.

While Clank tried to process this fact, Ratchet managed to pull himself together once again, but he did not look good at all.

"What is wrong with this place?" He asked, spitting, trying to get disgusting taste out of his mouth.

"This is the very heart of chaos, Ratchet. Perhaps this place reacts to our presence?"

Ratchet did not respond and cautiously walked into the room behind now shattered door. Clank just was going to follow him, when out of nowhere he saw someone appearing behind Rathcet.

"Behind you!" He exclaimed, horrifying memory of Alister killing his friend popping up from the depths of his mind.

Ratchet began to turn, raising his shotgun, but the figure was already gone – and this is when it hit Clank.

"Ratchet! I saw her!"

"Saw who?!" Ratchet looked around, eyes open wide in terror.

"Ariadnah! The woman from the painting!" Clank ran to Ratchet, "She was right here, behind you."

"You're joking, right?" Ratchet whispered, looking around. This seemed to be a living room. Well, at least there was a sofa and nightstand with shaded lamp on it, and broken TV. On the wall were more paintings, which ranged from weird to gross, in Ratchet's opinion. There also was a door with menacing-looking hanglock.

So they had to go to the other side of the house. To their surprise, someone – or something? - already opened the door for them. This room seemed to be a mix of kitchen and dining room. Ratchet was about to open the fridge when he heard Clank saying, "Are you sure you _want_ to peek inside? It could be filled with severed heads for what it worth…"

"Nope." Ratchet quickly spat, trying to erase the image from his head, jolting away from fridge with 'do not want' expression on his face, "Where did you even got that idea?!"

They then walked to the dining table. It was quite big, and had eight chairs around it. However, tit surface was smeared with blood, and had a sheet of paper with large key on it.

"Huh," lombax picked the key and paper, and looked closer at it. It seemed to be a page of a book, but it was so drenched in blood that he couldn't make anything out, except a few worlds, "'…betrayal took place… abandoned the Mother… the Void is…' Darn, I can't make anymore out of it" Ratchet sighed, and put it back on the table.

"Why would you read random blood-soaked paper?"

"Uh, it… caught my eye I guess?" Ratchet scratched back of his head, "Nevermind. I guess this place is getting to me."

Ratchet walked out of the kitchen. He had difficulty thinking. This place really was getting on his nerves. And it didn't intend on giving him a break. A loud growl came from behind, and lombax felt his robot friend locking on his harness.

"Run." Clank said in distressed manner. Ratchet didn't listen and decided to look at what he was running from first.

It was… something. For once, it had two horrifying, scythe-like claws, each as long as lombax himself. The creature had canine skull-like head, black eyes with glowing yellow dots for irises, and looked like deformed humanoid, with digitigrade legs, ending with sharp hooves.

"GAH!" Ratchet yelped and slammed the kitchen door shut, and dashed into the living room. The thing bashed through the door and followed him. Lombax quickly inserted key into the hanglock, only to find that it was jammed. It didn't matter much, as the thing drove its claw through the door – lombax barely managed to dodge out of the way, - destroying the lock fixture and getting its claw stuck in hard wood. Ratchet drew his shotgun, and fired at the monster, but it just shrugged pellets off, and sliced the door in half. Then it tried to pounce on Ratchet, but he rolled away, and rushed into now broken door. There he saw stairs to the second floor and rushed upstairs. The thing followed.

Ratchet felt his heart beating so fast he thought it's going to break from his chest, right through his ribs. He slammed the door shut, and rushed forward, not paying much attention to his surroundings. He ran to the corridor and ran into first door he saw, slamming it shut behind him. And as soon as he heard the door close, he regretted it.

They ended up in what it seemed to be children bedroom. Toys scattered on the floor, a ball, dolls, pieces of toy railroad… and, in the corner, stood a crib, with small skeleton curled in fetal position inside.

"This… is… so sick…" Ratchet covered his face, feeling like he'll throw up again any moment.

He didn't got his chance. A creepy, distorted laughter came, and a horde of small, bug-like things rushed from under the crib and assaulted Ratchet's feet. This reminded him of tetramites, and he panicked, turning around and tried to open the door again, but it didn't budge. He could feel those tiny things chewing on his boots and legs through pants. Scared, lombax began stomping little things, screaming something incomprehensible. Stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp…

"…Ratchet! RATCHET!" Clank's voice came to him as if he somehow stuffed pillows into his ears, "They're gone! They're gone! Stop it, please!"

Ratchet fell on his knees, his boots and soles covered in goo he turned his tiny assailants into. His breath was uneasy and fast.

"…Clank… I REALLY want to go home… Please take me home…"

"Get yourself together, Ratchet," small robot came closer to Ratchet and placed and on his shoulder, "Please… I don't like this place at all, but I need you to stay together… I can't do anything here without you."

Ratchet's thoughts were a tangled mess right now, but slowly he barely managed to sort them out. "I feel like I'm going insane, pal... I can't think straight…" He slowly stood up, but then leaned on the wall and sat down, "Give me a moment, pal… I need to catch my breath… I hope that… _creature_ is gone."

"I can go check…"

"NO." Ratchet cut him off, "You're not risking your life, pal. You can't do anything here without me… And I can't…" he paused. Painful memories from the past rose in his mind, "I don't want to lose my best friend… for real."

Clank nodded in agreement, but still walked to the door, "I'll just take a peek outside."

So he did. Carefully opening the door he looked out into the corridor, first to the left, then to the right. "It appears that whatever it was is gone now, Ratchet."

"Then let's get going before it decides to return", lomax responded, quickly raising to his feet, but slipping on the gooey mass that left from recent curb-stomping, "SonnuvaQwark!" Ratchet yelped and fell with audible thud. He stood up, "Ugh, great, now I'm all in that stuff. Hope it's not acidic or something."

Clank hopped onto Ratchet's back, and the duo went back. They were in the room above livingroom, and it seemed to be a cross of library and study. Ratchet took a look at the table, but found nothing of interest. So they went through the corridor, to the room above kitchen. This room was empty, except for ladder leading to the attic.

"Ratchet, someone's coming"

"What? Where?" lombax turned around, quickly backing to the wall.

"Outside", Clank replied, and Ratchet quickly dashed to the window.

"Wait, is that?.." He saw a figure dressed in red leather, "I thought you said she was _in_ here?!"

"Yes, I saw her," now robot sounded confused, "I don't understand; how she was here if she's just entering the house?"

"Let's not get caught by her," Ratchet suggested and moved to the ladder, climbing up to the attic. Unfortunately, he didn't check the surroundings and got jumped on by the same thing that assaulted him before, sending him crashing through the roof. For a moment Ratchet thought he's going to fall off the mansion, but was surprised to find himself falling on flat roof on the side of the building wing, falling on his back. Scythe-handed creature jumped onto him, but somehow lombax managed to kick the thing, making it fly over him and off the building. For a moment he thought all was good, but suddenly he realized that Clank wasn't on his back anymore.

"Clank! Where are you?!" He jumped up and look around, trying to locate his friend, even looking down over the edge of the roof.

"I'm down here, Ratchet," He heard Clank voice coming from below. Suddenly, he noted a small square hole in the roof, and, as he looked down, he saw green dots of Clan's eyes.

"Are you alright there, pal?"

"Shaken from the impact a bit, but other than that I'm fine," Clank replied, "It appears that I fell into the cellar. I believe I noticed a hatch below the stairs when we were running away from that thing, but I'm not sure about that."

"Alright, I'll go and take a look," Ratchet rushed back down. Clank wanted to remind him about Ariadnah, but he was already too far to hear. Letting out a sight, little robot activated his image intensifier and proceeded through the cellar. He moved his little feet as fast as he could, but was forced to stop, when he saw something that almost made him short-circuit.

He saw Ratchet's dead, beheaded body on the floor. More than that, there was a big creepy stone head, and the way the body and head were positioned, it looked like the statue bit Ratchet's head off. Clank dashed toward the scene, but just as he moved, both body and stone head disintegrated into dust. Completely confused, Clank proceeded onward, but the picture firmly lodged in his memory, making him feel uneasy.

Finally, he reached the ladder out of the cellar, and called, "Ratchet, are you there? Can you hear me?"

"Yes, I'm right above you, pal" he heard Ratchet's response, muffled by the cellar hatch, "The hatch's hinges seem to be rusted, hold on." He heard lombax huffing and growling, and with a loud creak, the hatch slowly opened. Clank climbed up, turned to Ratchet, "Are you alright? I had… a bad vision down there"

"Yes, I'm alright. Shaken, but alright," Ratchet replied, "What did you see?"

Clank hesitated for a moment, "I saw you dead, Ratchet."

"Well, I'm not dead and do not intend to die yet!" Ratchet smiled, "Come on, pal. Let's check the attic... And be more careful this time."

They didn't go very far. When they reached the library, they got ambushed by the scythe-thing. This time, it pounced them really hard, and pinned Ratchet to the wall, its claw slicing through his shoulder, barely missing the bone. The lombax screamed in pain, and tried to wrestle the thing away, but failed. The thing raised its scythe, intending to finish him off, only to be interrupted by flash of red light behind it. The creature shrieked in pain and slowly disintegrated into dust. Ratchet looked at their savior.

A woman from the painting was looking at him.

"So…" Ratchet realized there's no way he can shake her off now, "You are Ariadnah?" He covered the wound on his shoulder, feeling the blood seeping through his fingers – even through his gloves. Nanotech made the pain more manageable, but it still was uncomfortable, deep wound.

"Why yes, sweetie," She replied and slowly walked towards him, swaying her hips slightly, her leathery garments squeaking softly, "What such adorable things like you are doing here?"

"Well… uh… We're looking for a chaos gem…" Ratchet's ear twitched.

"Why would you?" Ariadnah giggled softly, her voice flowed like silk, "You already got two pretty gems," she was now so close, Ratchet felt awkward. Besides, that comment of hers… What was she… "I always adored emeralds," she smiled, looking straight into Ratchet's eyes.

"Look, lady… We just want the chaos gem, alright?" Ratchet said, blushing under his fur. So she meant his eyes…

"Why do you think I'll give them to you?" She moved even closer. Ratchet felt his skin crawl on his back. On the painting, it seemed that she was wearing the blank mask, but in reality that was her _face_.

"Well, if you won't, then…"

"Oh, then what? You'll kill me, sweetheart?" Ariadnah asked him. She slowly moved his hand away from his shoulder and saw his wound, "Oh poor little thing… Let me help you," before Ratchet or Clank could object, she gently moved her finger along he wound. Ratchet felt a momentarily burning pain, and the wound was gone, not even leaving a scar.

"W-whoa…" Ratchet was deeply confused about what was happening.

"Darling, not even the one who sent you here could not kill me," Ariadnah continued, moving her hand onto Ratchet's chest and gently stroking his fur, "You know, I'm curious… Why do you do his bidding? You don't even know who he is, sweetheart."

Ratchet felt as if he was dreaming. But he managed to pull himself together and push Ariadnah away, shouting at her, "Stop trying to sweet-talk me!"

She didn't seem to be surprised or offended or upset. "I just don't understand how can you trust a complete stranger", she shrugged, "Say, did he tell you why he fears me so much? Ask him this when you meet him next time," She turned around and walked to the staircase, "You will find chaos gem in the closet in the attic, sweetheart. You will then be able to leave through the portal at the gate. But hurry, dear – or those horribly impolite beings will return." She went downstairs and disappeared from the duo's sight.

They indeed found the chaos gem in the attic. A small, deep dark red gem, cut into dodecahedral shape. Ratchet felt it stinging his fingers as he picked it up, and passed it to Clank, who put it into his storage compartment.

After that, they left the mansion without any problems. Ratchet brought them through the portal at the gates, but ended up doing the same thing he did when he arrived – applied too much pressure on the portal and faceplanted on the stone floor of the corridor.

And then he snapped.

" _Finally finally finally it's over!_ " He shouted, lying on the floor, his nose slightly bleeding from impact, " _I hope this never happens again, I want to forget this all forever, I'll never again… I'll be good, I don't understand why I had to go through this, I was a good lombax, what did I do to deserve…_ "

"Let it all out, Ratchet," said Clank softly, patting his friend shoulder. In fact, he wanted to join him, as the mansion did freak him out as well, but, unlike his organic friend, he had more control over his emotions.

After half hour of sobbing and mumbling, Ratchet finally pulled himself together. He sat up, wiped his face a bit. "Do you feel better now, Ratchet?" he heard Clank's voice.

"Yeah… Sorry about that, pal… But I just couldn't take it anymore. I sure hope this won't repeat…" He slowly stood up, "Let's go give this shadow guy his gem."

It didn't take them long to find him - he was right behind the corner, looking at the portrait of pale female.

"Oh, you're both finally here. Good. Do you have what I asked for?" He said, not even turning around.

"Yes, we do indeed, sir," Clank replied.

"You had no trouble getting the gem from her?" He asked, turning to the duo and reaching his hand to them. Clank opened his storage, pulled the gem out and handed it over to Shadow.

"Yes. She was surprisingly cooperative," Clank noted as Shadow took the gem.

"Although she told us to ask you why do you afraid her so much," Ratchet said.

The Shadow cringed, "Let us not speak of this subject… Trust me, it's best for you not to get involved that far."

"Alright," sighed Ratchet.

"Pardon my curiosity, sir, but who is this?" asked Clank, pointing at the portrait.

"Someone I once loved," Shadow replied, "Alas, we're not meant to be together."

"Why is that?"

"It… didn't work out as we hoped," Shadow turned away for a moment, "That, and Ariadnah got in the way." He paused, "Anyway, back to business. I asked you to bring me a chaos gem, so I could reopen the gate to _Dark Acropolis_. It used to be my favorite hiking spot… But now it's under Ariadnah's reign." Duo heard another door opening with screeching sound, "I made it so she can't escape from the mansion, but, despite that, the spirits you've released managed to overrun the place. You must purge the Acropolis from them, ore else you'll never get out of here…"

"Wait, what?" Ratchet's ears perked up, "You know, I think we've run into one of the spirits, and we were unable to even scratch it!"

"Really? What did it look like?" Shadow tilted his head slightly.

"Like some sort of horror with scythes for hands"

"Guilt. Interesting…" Shadow turned around, "You've run into a spirit of Guilt. Is there something you feel you could have prevented but did not?"

"Yes," said Ratchet quietly, remembering both Alister's death at Great Clock and Cronk and Zephyr's deaths, "But I don't want to talk about it"

"Must be a really strong feeling. You don't just randomly run headfirst into Guilt. But don't worry, the only reason you could not harm it was because you were at their home turf..."

"And this acropolis place is not their home turf?" Ratchet asked, barely holding sarcasm back.

"It's MY home turf," the Shadow said, "I see you already found something to defend yourself with… But you'll be wise to go to the garden – the room where we first met – and grab some extra weaponry I left there for you. In the meantime, I'll make sure no more spirits can escape from us," Shadow finished and disappeared again.

The duo went to the garden – indeed it was a garden, although a small one – and there, Ratchet picked up two more guns – again, they were unlike anything he was used to. One seemed to be an assault rifle, while other was a laser gun. There also was ammo – three boxes of shells for shotgun, three magazines for rifle, and six batteries for laser. Now Ratchet had 38 shells and 120 rifle rounds in his possession. He wasn't sure how laser gun batteries worked, though.

"Ratchet, please try not to hurt yourself with this portal", said Clank as they walked to the portal in question.

"I'm still not sure how it works, but I'll try," was the response, and, after Clank attached himself to Ratchet's back, he, instead of pressing onto portal just stepped through it as if he would step through the door. The portal surface gave in instantly, wrapped around him and pulled him in, and next thing he knew he was transported to the Dark Acropolis.


	3. III Dark Acropolis

_A/N: Sorry for the long wait, been busy at work. Also I could not into counting in previous chapter.  
_

* * *

The first thing that greeted the arriving duo was cool, gentle breeze that made Ratchet's fur flutter slightly. A soft, small rain was going on, making Ratchet ears twitch and he sniffed slightly when a drop or two landed on his nose. Looking up, he sighed, as the sky was completely covered in endless grey clouds. 'Why is everything so grey here?' He thought.

They were on the edge of a very large crater. In the center of it stood a steep flat-topped mountain, atop of which stood what it seemed to be a castle – high walls, with towers in the corners, and two tall lowers rising from the center, one slightly taller than another, taller one ending with pointy, tall roof, while smaller one had a statue of some kind of demon on top. A long, wide bridge led towards the castle, and our heroes were at the very start of it.

"Wow," said Ratchet.

"Yes, impressive sight indeed," agreed Clank, jumping off his back and looking around in awe, "Although this place would look much better if all the plantlife wasn't so… lifeless."

"What? Oh…" Ratchet looked at his friend and chuckled, "No, I actually meant, 'Wow, that's a long way to go'. But the sight is, indeed, impressive." He looked at the castle in the distance.

"You know, Clank, I think our new 'friend' here is not who – or what – he pretends to be. I mean, one man can't create an entire world, right?"

"I honestly have no idea on the subject, Ratchet," small robot replied, tilting his head slightly.

"Yeah, maybe I just went crazy during our last run-in with old Nef" the lombax shrugged.

"But I'm definitely seeing what you're seeing," Clank objected.

"Yeah, then maybe we're both crazy," Ratchet waved away, "Come, pal. We've got a long walk before us." He rubbed his chin, "Come to think of it… Does your thrusterpack's charge function still work?"

"Do I need to remind you why you decided to stop using this function and switched to charge boots and later hoverboots when you needed a speed boost?" Clank sighed.

...

"Oww oww oww aaah!"

"Exactly," Clank watched his furry friend spin around in circles, trying to put out small flame on his tail, "This is why." He couldn't help but giggle at how silly lombax looked chasing his tail.

"Haha, yes, very funny!" Ratchet snarked, finally managing to put out last flames, watching his burned fur and skin slowly shed and regrow, "If our luck will continue be like this, I'll be out of Nanotech soon."

"Don't over-exaggerate," Clank narrowed his 'eyelids', "This burn you got only takes one-quarter of Nanotech unit to fix. Plus, I got some stored, because I know you and your tendency to get hurt by seemingly harmless items."

"Hey! Qwark's socks don't count! Those things are grade-A bioweapon, I tell you!"

"Alright, I don't want to be reminded of that story," Clank shook his head, "Let us focus on the problem at hand"

"Sure thing, pal," Ratchet nodded, and, as Clank hopped back up, added, "But we'll walk this time, alright?"

"As you wish, Ratchet," Clank could not help but let out another giggle.

As they moved on, the bridge got slightly wider the closer they got to the castle. Square pools with water, covered with some water plants, began to show up on the sides of the bridge, standing atop bridge pylons. As they walked further, bridge railing ended, leaving the rest of the bridge rather unsafe to be on, especially near the edges.

"You know, I'm surprised we did not encounter any of those chaos spirits things," Ratchet said.

"Do not tempt fate, Ratchet," Clank responded, "Remember, if it wasn't for Ariadnah's intervention, that Guilt spirit could have killed you."

"Yes, but remember what our shadowy friend said? We were at their home turf," Ratchet turned his head back and smiled slightly, "And now they don't have this advantage anymore…"

He didn't finish the sentence as he was interrupted by a rumble coming from the front, so he turned back. Just in time to see three of guilt spirits galloping towards whim, while two more burst from the bridge.

"Oh now you decided to show up!" Ratchet grinned and pulled out his shotgun. He waited for a moment, then shot the closest one, and leapt backwards. Clank fired his jets once, throwing Ratchet further away from spirits. Ratchet fired again, and one of the spirits turned into cloud of dust with pained shriek. The rest picked up the pace and rushed at Ratchet, one jumped at him, flailing his scythe-claws. Lombax dashed to the side, with Clank's help again avoiding menacing claws, as four monsters sped by. Two spirits turned around quickly and charged back at lombax, while other two moved a bit further away and turned around, too, but remained still.

"I do believe they want to surround us, Ratchet!" Clank shouted, firing his jets in sync with lombax jumps, pulling him away from the spirits. Two more shots fired, destroying one more spirit. The remaining pursuer shrieked and stopped, Ratchet shot him one more time, however schyte-armed creature dashed to the side, avoiding shot. Ratchet fired again, creature avoiding shrapnel again. "Buggers are getting smarter!" Ratchet snarled, taking a quick scan of surroundings, and seeing the others monsters finally deciding to join the fight. Lombax shot the dodging beast once more, and yet again it successfully dodged, and leapt at him. With enough adrenaline in his blood now, Ratchet calmly drew his wrench, stepped slightly to the side and whacked the guilt spirit right on its skull-head. A sick cracking sound was heard, the spirit hissed in pain and swing his scythe at Ratchet, who barely dodged it with help of Clank. Lombax then waited for a second and made another strike, dashing forward. The spirit's skull caved in, its body twisted in agony – one of its scythes scratched Ratchet's chest, leaving small cut, barely missing the harness that held Clank – and then it disintegrated. Another spirit leapt at him, Ratchet rolled forward, right under him, and threw his wrench at second remaining monster, drawing shotgun at the same time. The wrench hit made the guilt spirit stumble and fall, and lombax immediately finished it off with shotgun blast. Ratchet caught the wrench, and swung it back, hearing a warning shout from Clank. The hit connected - Ratchet trained to use his lombax hearing in close quarters combat as much as his eyesight – but apparently it hit the opponent not where it was intended. Clank fired thrusters, pulling his friend away from deadly claws – well, one claw, since other was somewhat broken after Omniwrench hit – and then fired again in mid-air, turning Ratchet around to face the guilt spirit. Ratchet shot, but his gun just clicked. The last creature, gaining strength, leapt high in the air, intending to get the lombax. But once again, Clank fired thrusters, making his friend yelp in surprise, as the spirit flew right next to him, and landed into one of the pools of water.

Ratchet could never guess that it could scream like that. He cringed and put his hand to his ears, but the scream, full of pain and terror still made its way in.

It looked like the water itself turned into some sort of liquid abomination, shooting countless tendrils up, wrapping around the spirit – and then, in one sudden motion, pulled it under. The screams of the spirits were cut off so abruptly, that, despite the rain and wind, the place seemed dead silent. For a second, there were bubbles on the pool surface, and then it was calm again.

"Pal?.. Please remind me not to get close to any body of liquid until we're home," Ratchet mumbled, feeling strange weakness in the knees.

"I also would like to remind you to figure out the way to reload you weapons," Clank said, "If it hasn't been for this pool, we might have had a problem."

Ratchet pulled out a box of shells, and put them into mag, one by one.

"This thing could use some work," he sighed, "I don't have time to reload it like this in combat."

They walked to the end of the bridge without any trouble, but as they walked to the castle – which was way bigger than both of them thought – they found that the gates were closed shut.

And guarded by two spirits.

Although these were not guilt spirits; these had large, bulky bodies, with huge circular maws in the center, with several rows of teeth, with tiny arms and small legs.

"They remind me of tyrrhanoids, but without eyes," Ratchet mumbled under his breath, "Alright, ready?"

Guardians let out a gurgling roar and ran towards the duo, looking like they will stumble and fall over any moment. Ratchet shot one, and it flew back, fountain of strange grey goo erupting from broken maw. Its body slowly dissolved into same gooey mass, and soaked into the ground. Lomax decided not to wait and immediately shot the other one, knocking it back as well.

"Huh, that wasn't so hard," he shrugged, "But I doubt we can open those gates on our own."

"There seems to be some kind of pipe on the other side of the castle that leads inside," Clank said thoughtfully, narrowing one eye and rubbing his chin, "But my scanners can not pick up anything beyond these walls. We should proceed with caution."

It took them nearly an hour to reach the other side. Everything was surprisingly quiet, the only thing that happened was the rain got harder. Ratcher's fur was soaked and heavy, his ears hung low, and he felt cold. 'This is definitely not a right weather for lombaxes' he thought. By the time they reached the pipe Clank mentioned, only his feet were dry – those boots were, indeed, waterproof, just like advertised.

"Alright, we're here. Finally!" He exclaimed, looking into darkness inside the pipe, "Some refuge from this rain. Do you have a flashlight handy?"

"Let me check," Clank responded and went through his storage compartment, "I only got a LED torch. You can place it on your harness, and it should give you enough light to see around you."

"Yeah, but if anything will decide to pop from the darkness, we're toast," Ratchet sighed, taking LED torch from Clank and fixing it on his harness.

They continued into the pipe, slow and steady, but it only took them five minutes to reach what they needed – a ladder leading up. Ratchet climbed it, and couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief, as the tunnel they entered was much, much warmer than outside – mostly because it was lit by some sort of braziers.

"Hold on, pal, I need to do something real quick, can you watch my back?" Not waiting for answer, lombax took off harness that held clank, then his boots and pants, and shook off water from his fur. "Burrr, much better," he said, picking up his pants and wringing them. There was so much water in it; it took good few minutes to squeeze most of it out.

"Well, that's something at least; I sure hope I'm not catching any cold during this venture," Ratchet said with sad smile, putting his pants and boots back on, and then the harness too, "Alright, I'm ready."

"Ratchet?"

"Yes, Clank?" Lombax responded. They were walking through various passageways for an hour, but it seemed that they would never end. Same boring grey bricks, with pale orange tint from torches lighting passageways, same square stone slabs for flooring.

"I've mapped the passageways we passed. You will be surprised, but by my calculations, we should be well beyond the castle walls."

"What?" Ratchet took another turn, opened another door, and entered another passageway – no, actually, this was not a passageway. The door led to large hall, to a long, low stairs leading forward and upward, with a portal at the top. The floor was covered with same liquid stuff that was in the pools on the bridge outside. Neither Ratchet, nor Clank could see the ceiling of the hall.

Few more maw-like spirits jumped out of the portal, followed by four blueish snake-like creatures. The last spirit that came from the portal looked like a very sad, metallic grey starfish. While maw spirits rushed forward on their stubby legs, the starfish moved on the staircase and stopped, while snake-like ones formed a line near the portal and began spitting globs of green goo at the duo.

"Great, ranged units," Ratchet muttered, crouching under first wave of spit, and taking out maw spirits one by one. It didn't take too much effort, they were quite squishy and clumsy, and soon they all were gone, turned into goo that leaked down into 'water' below. Ratchet ran up to the starfish creature, pulling out his rifle and shooting at spitting snakes only to find his shots being blocked by some invisible field. Suddenly, the starfish creature spread its 'arms' out, revealing sort of a face in the middle, looking angrily at Ratchet, and hissing at him. Ratchet hissed back at it and shot it straight in the face. It turned red, and suddenly retaliated at Ratchet, firing a blast of energy at him, throwing him off balance and nearly off the stairs into the flowery 'water' below, hadn't it been for Clank, who activated his thrusters and threw lombax back up, face first onto the stairs. Ratchet hissed again, stood up and looked at the creature blocking their path. Ratchet shot it a few more times, and with each hit its face got redder and redder.

"I do not think it's a good idea, Ratchet," Clank tried to tell Ratchet not to get too close, but lombax already closed in again. This time the blast was more powerful, it sent Ratchet flying down the stairs, tumbling and counting steps with his jaw. It was a miracle that he didn't break his neck, lost any of his teeth or bit his tongue off. He only got some bruises and scratches, but it pissed him off. He jumped back up, dodged the globs of goo from snake monsters, and charged the starfish monster with his wrench; he swung his wrench, landing a solid hit. It screamed, and turned all red, its limbs twitched in mad frenzy. Ratchet jumped back – bad idea, seeing how he was on stairs, it send him tumbling down, again, by miracle only getting bruises and minor scratches – but starfish thing continued to thrash madly, hissing and screeching, until it suddenly exploded. Seeing this, snake monsters fled back into the portal.

"Ratchet, wait! We do not know what's behind this portal!" Clank warned, but Ratchet didn't listen and ran through. A wave of cold rushed through his body, and he – once again – fell through, landing flat on his chest into cold, wet grass, his LED torch going out. Darkness and crickets chirping surrounded the duo. Ratchet stood up, rising his wrench in defensive stance, as he could not make anything out around him. Seconds passed slowly, nothing happened, until his torch turned back on. Somewhat blinded, Ratchet covered his eyes for a moment.

"Where are we now?!" He hissed, looking around once his eyes stopped hurting. The place looked like a park… Ratchet slowly inched forward through the grass.

"I told you," said Clank, "Why did you rush in there?"

"I honestly did not expect it to end like this!" Ratchet shrugged, when his ears suddenly picked up something, "Wait, you hear that?"

"Sounds like someone is… crying?" Clank raised 'eyebrow', "Wait, Ratchet, don't…"

Too late, his lombax friend already rushed towards the sound. As they moved closer, the wailing became louder and more distinct. Ratchet saw a spot of light in the distance where the crying was coming from, and ran even faster.

Only to find that there was nobody in that light spot, even though the crying kept coming from there.

"Huh? Weird…" Ratchet looked around, confused, and noticed something laying on the ground in the center of the light spot.

A small wooden… key?

"Who makes the keys out of wood?" mumbled Ratchet and picked it up.

A wave of warmth washed over his body as he again was transported – back into the inside of the building, as it seemed. He quickly looked around. He was in a room with a single door, already open, leading to another flooded grand hall, although there were some stone slabs poking out slightly above the surface – barely enough for one person to stand on top of one. Ratchet couldn't quite figure out what was on the other side of the hall, as it was too dark to see from this far.

"Well, pal, seems like this is the only way to go. You, uh, keep me out of this stuff on the floor? I don't trust it at all."

"I will do my best, Ratchet," Clank replied. So the lombax jumped. A second or two of flight, and he landed on nearest slab. He looked for next one, and jumped there. He didn't want to hurry, because even with all his lombax grace he didn't want to take any chances with whatever this liquid substance was.

Unfortunately, the chaos spirits were not interested in his well-being.

"Look out!" Came from Clank, and lombax turned instinctively to see the walls behind him collapse, revealing two big, massive spirits. Humanoid in shape, they watched the lombax from a distance, slamming their fists together. They had large, bulky arms and legs, and their body looked like a solid slab of muscles, full of might. Shortly after, two starfish spirits popped up, and about a dozen of spitting snakes formed a line behind them.

"Oh not good, not good at all!" Ratchet yelped and jumped onto next slab. He heard deep laughter coming from bigger spirits, and hissing of goo flying by him. One drop managed to land on hi arm, causing a painful burn jolt through his limb. Lombax bit his lip and kept going; he saw a large stone slab with a level in the center on the other end of the hall. Having no better options, he jumped on and on, hoping that Clank will help him if he misses the jump. But it was unnecessary. Ratchet finally landed on the final slab, rushed to the level and pushed it, falling on his side. Stone slab began to move up with surprising speed. The monsters on the other end of the hall let out annoyed howl, but didn't dare to follow him. Soon they were out of sight.

Ratchet sat up, hissed in pain and looked at his arm. The spot where goo landed looked like it was burned by acid, and it hurt a lot, despite nanotech already fixing it.

"That was close… You saw those two hulking things?" he asked.

"Yes. I should admit, they had something… powerful about them," small robot responded, jumping down and walking to take a look at lobax's arm, "Perhaps we should let our shadowy friend to take a look at this later. Let's just hope we won't meet any situations like this."

"By the way, Clank… Do you have any idea where this… elevator thing is taking us?"

"One of the towers maybe?" Clank shrugged, "I'm sorry, Ratchet; I do not have a map of this place; But even then, you remember that I told you before that we went beyond the castle waslls?"

"Yep. This place is odd." Ratchet sighed and stood up. The elevating slab slowed down and finally came to a stop. But the only thing the duo could see was another portal.

Or so they thought.

Just as Ratchet came closer, a familiar figure, clad in red leather appeared.

"What?! You again?!" Ratchet jumped back a bit in a surprise.

"You are right, Emerald," Ariadnah smiled.

"H-how did you get here?" the lombax was still a bit shocked to see her here, especially after what Shadow said…

"Oh, I see…" she giggled, "You see, I am not exactly there… This is just a window through which I see you… and through which we can communicate, Emerald."

"Stop calling me this. My name is Ratchet," he said, instinctively pulling his upper lip, baring fangs.

"I see you have your Silver friend with you, too," She continued, ignoring Ratchet's anger, "Listen, Emerald… You have the key. The keyhole is to your right. One turn counter-clockwise. Release me…"

"What key?" Ratchet asked, dumbfounded, but then he realized, "Oh, this key?" He shown her the wooden key he picked in the park, "And why should I help you anyway?"

"Why are you helping HIM?" She retorted, "Did he brainwashed you? He will kill you when he gets what he wants, Emerald."

"Excuse us, ma'am," Clank decided to join in, "But how can we be sure that it's not you who will betray us?"

"Oh… Did he answer you the question I mentioned?"

"Uh… Well, he… He did not?" Lombax scratched the back of his head.

"Yes, he did not," Clank confirmed.

Ariadnah laughed, "Of course he will not tell you that we used to be lovers!" Ratchet felt his jaw drop, and Clank tilted his head and squinted. There was something wrong here, but the little robot couldn't quite put his finger on what. He looked closer at Ariadnah, and noticed something behind her - something that looked like a ghostly face, barely visible.

"Until he betrayed me!" she finished, and, as if tracing Clank's look, quickly looked behind her and then suddenly her voice cracked into a desperate tone, "Please! Release me from here!"

Clank was about to say something, but Ratchet already inserted the key into keyhole and turned it clockwise.

Ariadnah hissed and slammed her fists at the window.

"You are making mistake, Emerald!" She said coldly, "You are going to regret this – sooner than you expect!" With that, she disappeared, and the window went black. Ratchet pulled the key back out and put it in his pocket.

"Ratchet!" Clank said reproachfully, "Why did you do that?"

"We can't really trust her now, Clank," he sighed, "Since we started going this way, we better keep going"

"But there was something there with her!" Clank continued, "I saw some strange face behind her, and it seems that she saw it too!"

"She's playing with you, pal," Ratchet shook his head, "And you probably need your optics checked. Come on, let's try and find the way out of here."

"Well it took far less time than I thought," Ratchet said, feeling rain on his fur again. Just as he finished his suggestion, they suddenly were teleported back to the crater edge, next to a bridge. The area looked a bit more alive now, some colors slowly fading in through grey mass. The rain got heavier, and a single lightning stoke near lombax and robot, throwing up a mass of rocks and dirt, as a new portal rose from that spot.

"I really hope there is something warm on the other side of this portal," Ratchet muttered, waited for his friend to jump up on his back, and walked straight through.


	4. IV Lone Tower

_After another break, another chapter._

* * *

"Alright, where are we now, again?" Ratchet asked, confused. Clank was wondering the same thing as well. They exited the portal, expecting to be back in the familiar corridors; but they ended up in a completely different place altogether.

All around them was a stormy sea. Dark clouds completely covered the sky, and the wind howled loud, making the lombax shiver. They were on a tiny island with portal they came in through, and right in front of them was another piece of land, with a tall, dark tower standing proud and high. A narrow stone bridge connected two islands. A handful of water hit Ratchet's face, making him realize that it's not a good idea to just stand still.

"Come on, pal, let's go… Or I just may end up catching cold here," he said carefully walking over the bridge. The waves were high enough to reach the bridge, but not high to wash him off… but he didn't want to hest this hypothesis.

And just as if to mock him, as soon as he reached the end, the rain started. Not just small rain, but real downpour. "Auugh!" Ratchet moaned and ran up the stairs to the tower door, pulling it open and quickly going inside, "Great, now I think there is water in my boots, too!"

"Come upstairs then," they heard a familiar voice coming from above, "It's not good for your health to run around in wet clothes and wet boots."

Ratchet dropped his weapons on the floor - he didn't even realized how heavy they were altogether, maybe he just was exhausted - and the duo climbed to the second floor of the tower, finding their shadowy friend standing near the window, looking outside.

"Uh, hi?" Said Ratchet awkwardly, as Clank jumped down on the floor.  
"I'm glad you're here" Shadow turned around, and, again, Ratchet felt that he was smiling, "I see you are a bit confused."  
"Yes, sir," Clank nodded, "Where are we?"  
"The Shadowland was a first antechamber. This is the Lone Tower, the second antechamber, and there is one more."  
"The antechamber?" Ratchet raised eyebrow, "What does it mean?"  
"You can get to different places from Antechambers. Of course, you can get anywhere from anywhere, and anywhere from any antechamber, but sometimes it's quicker to use certain antechamber as you origin point" Shadow explained, and rubbed his chin, "Honestly for a moment there I thought Ariadnah managed to sweet-talk you. I'm glad you resisted."  
"Thanks… I guess?" Ratchet shrugged, "So… What now?"  
"Now you need to rest," Shadow turned back to the window, "I'll send you to the Wilderness next, and it is a very dangerous and treacherous place. You'll need all the strength you have to… survive there." He sighed, "It used to be slightly less dangerous, but chaotic spirits corrupted local wildlife. You can guess how it went."  
"Hey… Uh, don't mean to bother you, but…" Ratchet scratched the back of his head, "Could you please tell us what we did wrong?"  
"So we could be more productive about fixing our mistake, sir" Clank added.

"I'll tell you more later, but for now you should know that you entered this realm through imperfect passage" Shadow said, gesturing the duo to follow him, "The imperfection attracted a powerful chaotic entity from the outside, and you, in turn, shown it a way into my world. I'm not sure why you have no memories of that, though," he frowned, as he led Ratchet and Clank to a third floor, "Honestly, you two are lucky that it went into my world, not yours."

He opened the door and gestured inside, "Here is a guest room. You can rest here until the morning. There is a bathroom behind that door," he pointed at a door on the left side of the room, "I take it you could use a hot bath after the cold shower you took. I'll light the fireplace and bring you something to eat while you're at it," he went into the room, as duo followed him, looking around. Although the walls of the tower were made of stone, this room looked warm and cozy; perhaps it was the fireplace that Shadow lit as they walked in. In the center of the room stood a massive-looking round wooden table with four chairs. Two antique-looking armchairs stood before the fireplace, and between them, on the floor, laid a rug made from some beast's fur.

"Sir, before you leave, could you please take a look at Ratchet's arm?" Clank said, "One of the spirits spat something on him, and it burned his arm."  
"Let me take a look," Shadow walked over, and grabbed lombax's arm, looking at the burned spot – fur there was slightly brighter than the rest, "Nothing serious. The burn wasn't deep, and poison was neutralized before it could enter the bloodstream."  
"Wait, those things are poisonous?!" Ratchet exclaimed, eyes widen.  
"Vile spirits are, yes. It isn't lethal, though; at worst, you'll feel agonizing pain." Shadow walked to the door, "There is a cloth rack near the fireplace, you can hang your clothes there to dry. I'll get you something to eat. Any preferences?"  
"Uh, something meat-y?" Ratchet said, "I really don't know what's considered 'food' here"  
"I think I'll be able to find something for you," Shadow shrugged and left.

"Great. So now we're facing things that are poisonous," Ratchet grumbled, taking his boots off, placing them near the fireplace. He then unfastened magnetic harness he never left home without (who knows if he'll need carry something - or someone - on his back?), and let it fall on the floor. He suddenly felt cold and tired, as he pulled off his gloves. "Pal, could you do me a favor and hang my pants to dry?" Before Clank could answer, lombax said "Thanks", and dropped said article off, and ran off to the bathroom. Clank shook his head, but he couldn't really blame him. Being a robot, he did not have same feelings his organic friend had, after all, but he knew about feeling uncomfortable, even though his, robotic, definition of uncomfortable was a bit different. Like minor short circuiting. How could organic feel short circuit? Well, to robots it was unpleasant, and Clank could understand that Ratchet was really uncomfortable in cold, wet clothing. So he only shook his head, and proceeded hanging Ratchet's pants, although, given his size, it could take a while...

Ratchet closed the door and let out a relieved sigh. Wet fur was one thing, but wet fur AND wet clothing? That was too much for him. Too bad he had nothing else to wear for the evening...  
Deciding to worry about this later, he looked around. Nothing special about it, just a regular bathroom, well, except every piece - from the stall and large bathtub to the faucets - looked like something out of museum. Especially the tub, massive, made of creamy-white colored material, with six thick ornate legs made of polished bronze. Lombax walked closer, looked at the faucet - simple-looking, but still nicely decorated with bronze plating - and turned on hot water. Despite the size, the tub was filling surprisingly fast, so he dropped his last piece of clothing on the floor, and climbed into the tub.  
The water was perfect. Of course, at first it seemed way too hot, but as he got used to it, he felt more comfortable. His body slowly relaxed, and Ratchet let his mind wander for a moment. He felt safe for the time being. Of course, he did not completely trust their new shadowy acquaintance, but hey, he didn't seem so bad. But then again, neither did Ariadnah...  
Ratchet frowned and tried his hardest to remember anything about what exactly happened after they left the Apogee station behind. However, between that and waking up in - what did he called the place again? - Shadowland antechamber there was nothing, pure void in memories. He could only wonder if Nefarious is somewhere out there, too...  
Letting out a subtle sigh, he decided to worry about it later. Maybe Shadow will tell them more. After all, he created this whole world, right? He told that he could deal with whatever Nefarious was doing himself... Huh, he must have went a bit overboard with it, seeing how 'good' doctor was freaked out by the results of his experimentations...  
But then, why were they here? Why did they go through the passage to this world?  
Ratchet groaned and facepalmed. Nothing made sense right now. He must have facepalmed a bit too hard, though, feeling his fingerpads tingle slightly. With another sigh, he decided not to think too hard and just enjoy hot bath while it lasts.

Clank just finished hanging Ratchet's clothing on the rack when Shadow returned with food.  
"There you go," he said, placing a rather large covered silver plate on the table, "Well, that's for your friend. Do you want anything?"  
"No, sir, thank you," Clank replied, "But if you don't mind, I'd like to have more information on what we are facing."  
"Fair enough," Shadow nodded and sat in one of the armchairs, "Let's go in order then, shall we?"  
"First, could you tell more about spirits we've encountered?"

So it turned out that spitting snake-like spirits were Vile, they were adept at ranged combat, but easily defeated in melee; there were two kinds of the starfish-like spirits - Ignorance and Arrogance, both dedicated to protection of their fellow fighters; Ignorance was the one that projected shield field and exploded on them after Ratchet hit it with wrench, while the only way to deal with Arrogance was to try separate it from the group, for it didn't project the shield like Ignorance, but, rather, made spirits around it more tough, as well as getting tougher the more spirits were around it; finally, the huge spirits were Hatred, and the one thing to remember about them was 'do not let them get their hands on you, unless you want to get every bone in your body broken in a few dozens of ways'.

"And those things with maws are not spirits. It's an animal corrupted by chaotic energies. The spirits dissolve into dust after their energy runs out, you see," Shadow explained, "Dust of all form and kind is most common matter, and easiest to manipulate, that's why more concentrated energies use it to form bodies. Think of it as of bottles with water. Once too many wounds inflicted, the energy will leak out faster, and when there's too little left, the links between the particles will fail, and the spirit's body will fall apart, and its energy will dissipate."  
"So I take it the 'water' that consumed the guilt spirit there was some sort of mutated fish?" asked Clank, rubbing his chin.  
"Most likely a frog" Shadow shrugged, "That reminds me... When you are in the wilds... do your best to avoid bodies of water. Especially big ones."

Ratchet opened eyes. He must've drifted into a slumber there. He didn't know how long he was out, but the water was still warm, so he couldn't have been out for long. Nevertheless, he decided to get out and be done with bathing for the night; he pulled the plug, and, after the water was gone, shook himself. Feeling satisfied, Ratchet climbed out from the bathtub, took a large towel and dried himself. However, as he looked on the floor, he frowned a bit. He had no wish to put his wet and cold boxers, but he didn't want to walk around naked either. Again, he looked around, noticing a wall closet. Huh, how did I not notice it before, he wondered. Opening it, he let out a pleased chuckle, the closet was filled with bathrobes. Lombax took one that fit him best, put it on, closed the closet, picked up his underwear, and went back in the main room.

"Ah, there you are," Shadow said, standing up from the armchair, "Hope you find meal to your liking," he paused for a moment, "Sadly, due to certain events earlier, this antechamber lacks beds... So I apologize, but you'll have to sleep in the armchair..." he paused again, "Or you can sleep on a rug near fireplace, if you prefer." Shadow let out a sad chuckle, "I used to like doing that sometimes, when I was younger..."  
"Eh, I think that's a good idea. I could use as much warmth as I can get," Ratchet smiled slightly, "You seem to be more friendly than before."  
"That's because things are finally getting back in hand," Shadow nodded, "I'll get you a pillow and blanket while you're eating."  
"Alright," agreed Ratchet, and as their host left, sat on the chair at the table, "So, how are you doing, pal? Need any maintenance?"  
"No, I am fine right now. Just need to re-boot a couple of processes, and perform a passive analysis of data received." Clank replied, "Perhaps slight defragmentation won't hurt, either."  
"Good. Now, let's see what we have here..." lombax pulled cover up from the plate. "Huh." He did expect anything, but still was surprised to find quite normal-looking chicken legs with potatoes and some greens. Taking a careful bite, he confirmed that it was, indeed, chicken and potatoes.

Ratchet stretched and yawned. He was really tired now, his body felt heavy and stiff. He put the pillow Shadow brought him on the rug, took off his bathrobe, and curled up on the rug, pulling the blanket onto him.  
"Goodnight, Clank," mumbled lombax with another yawn.  
"Good night, Ratchet," Clank replied and went into sleep mode.

An army marched through the city. Line after line after line of infantrymen, clad in heavy metal armor, eyes burning yellow, faces hidden under gasmasks, followed by columns of tanks and IFVs. Air filled with howling of jet engines of airplanes, dropships and gunships. And as this army moved on, the ground itself burned under soles of their boots, buildings fell apart around it. And, behind this destruction, stood some evil presence, casting sinister shadow on the marching forces.  
And the only one who was standing in the way of this destruction was Ratchet.  
"You can not save him." a voice spoke. Clank did not like the sounding of this voice. It spoke so calmly, so surely… So forcefully.  
Everything went black and little robot once again found himself staring at Ratchet's beheaded body.  
"You can not save him." Said the voice once again, this time louder and clearer.

Clank jumped from his hibernation. This was unusual. Robots did not have nightmares. He quickly looked to the fireplace, and felt relieved seeing Ratchet sleeping. He even heard his subtle snoring – or was he purring? Clank decided not to bother his friend, and tried to sleep again.

He was in the dark forest. He could barely see around him, and he had no idea where he was going. He kept walking forward, until he saw a familiar-looking figure in a distance.  
"Ratchet?" he called.  
The figure turned towards him. Clank felt terror shorting some of his circuits. It was not Ratchet, but rather some grotesque horror that looked like him in the dark. With an oil-chilling howl the monstrosity pounced at Clank, its claws tearing through raritanium plating and his circuitry… and robot heard faint wail coming from it, "Help me…"

Clank woke up much faster this time. His coolant pumps still were operating at full capacity, he waited for a moment to calm down, then again looked at Ratchet. He was still there, still sleeping. And purring in his sleep.  
Clank facepalmed and let out a silent sigh. This was indeed very unnatural. But he still had to sort out the data and perhaps do slight defrag on some of his disks. So he made another attempt at sleeping.

He was standing in a black void. In front of him, a few meters away, laid Ratchet, badly beaten. He was breathing heavily, blood dripped from his mouth, and it seemed that his leg and his tail were broken.  
"Hang on Ratchet, I'm coming!" Clank shouted and ran towards dying – he was sure he was dying – lombax. But just as he made few first steps, his path was blocked by someone he was not expecting.

The Zoni.

"Let me pass!" Clank demanded, "My friend is dying!"  
"No, sire!" said Zoni in unison, "No time!"  
"Of course there is no time, he's bleeding out!" Clank tried to walk around, but small aliens surrounded him.  
"Do not fix" They said suddenly.  
"What?" Clank suddenly felt uneasy.  
"DESTROY." Said all Zoni and moved closer.  
Clank looked around creeped out as Zoni continued chanting.  
'Do not fix, destroy. Do not fix, destroy."

The moved closer and closer, chanting on and on. Finally, they were standing so close, Clank felt terrified. Just then, the Zoni and Ratchet disappeared, and Clank found himself in front of some strange contraption. Countless gears, pistons, pipes, wires, circuit boards and strange fleshy bits combined in some amalgam, a mechanical abomination, stuck in perpetual motion.

And then he woke up again.

Clank shook his head, and once again checked on Ratchet - this time he even came near his sleeping friend to make sure he's alright. Lombax was well asleep, purring softly in his dreams.

Clank sighed and diverted part of his processing powers to sort out the data. Memory defragmentation can wait. He didn't want to experience any more of those... visions. Maybe it has something to do with my Zoni origins, he thought. Small bot decided that if he can't get rest, he could look around some more, maybe ask Shadow more questions...

He walked out of the room and went up another floor. There was an open door there, in which Clank went. Of course, he remembered that "curiosity killed a cat" thing, but he was sure nothing bad is going to happen while they were in this antechamber.

The room was a study. Bookshelves standing near walls, circling around large table. There were a few books on it, as well as... something familiar. Clank squinted and zoomed in. His jaw dropped as he ran to the table and jumped on it. His jaw dropped even further. On the table laid some sort of map, looking like some sort of board game, covered with strange symbols, handwritten notes and arrows. But that was not what shocked the zoni robot. On this board stood small figures of him... And Ratchet.

Clank was confused. He picked up Ratchet's figure and looked closely at it. It looked uncannily lifelike, down to fur and eyes, so little robot put it back down. He then noticed another figure, his jaw dropped again. It was figure of doctor Nefarious. It laid beyond the map thing, surrounded by question marks and some messy handwriting.

So, robotic villain is somewhere around here, Clank made a mental note. His attention shifted to the books on the table. Again, most of them were written in languages he did not know, but one stood out, for two reasons. First, it was written in a language he could understand but did not recognize, but second, more interesting, he found a passage Ratchet was reading back in the heart of chaos. Specifically, the one about the void.  
Most of it Clank did not understand, but from a quick read he learned that the world is located in the Void, and is built using Chaos by the Shaper, a person who creates world by giving chaotic energies purpose, without which said energies are very dangerous. Shaper used 'tools and lenses' to shape and focus energies in a variety of ways, giving them almost god-like powers. Almost. However, this is where Clank ability to read text was over, as paragraphs further were written in different language. One of the many languages of this strange world he didn't recognize.

He sighed silently and turned over a few pages, hoping to find any more information, but found nothing. He actually began to feel guilty about snooping around like this, but then again, he wasn't sure if Shadow would approve his questioning. Huh, Shadow. Interesting how we came to referring him. Well, we don't know his real name, Clank shrugged and jumped off the table, left he room and walked up another floor, finding himself on the roof, to his surprise. The tower seemed to be much smaller on the inside than outside. Clank looked around; the storm was almost over, wind was slowly slowing, and there was no thunder or lightning, and even the rain was over. Looking down, robot saw Shadow walking along the shore. Bot shook his head and ran downstairs. He decided he had to apologize for reading that book.

Shadow didn't notice him. He was looking in the distance, and, as lank moved closer, he heard him singing quietly. He moved a bit closer...

"... _Well and I've built me a fortress at seashore/Where waves wash away wet footprints on sand/But volcano then erupted, the tsunami came/All I earned throughout the years sank under the sea..._ "

Clank noted that for sad lyrics, the way Shadow sang was way too upbeat.

"Yes, that's ironic, isn't it?" Shadow said, turning slightly towards the robot, "You want something?"  
"Uhh..." Clank lifted a finger and paused, "How long were you aware that I'm here?"  
"I heard you coming, my hearing is not that bad," he turned back to the sea."Oh..." Clank rubbed his chin, "Well, I couldn't sleep..." Shadow looked at him and Clank almost felt him raising eyebrow, "Well, it's not really sleep; I shut down non-vital processes and do data-specific maintenance; like disk defragmentation, temporary memory cleaning, sometimes cpu reboot; things like that," Shadow nodded, "But I've been... receiving unusual information feed that... threw me off balance."  
"You... had a nightmare? That is if I understood you correctly" man turned to Clank and scratched his chin.  
"Well... Yes? I'm not sure," Clank's head hung low, he could not understand this as well, "So I decided to look around some more. And I went upstairs and found your study, and... I let my curiosity get the best of me, and I took a peek in a book on your table."  
"Ah, you found my notes on world creation then?" Shadow chuckled, "And I guess you saw the figurines of you and your friend?"  
"Uh, yes. They look so..." robot paused, trying to find right words, "Alive."  
"That's for emergency, and I really do hope we don't have to use them," Shadow continued, "They allow me to find you wherever you are and come to you."

There was an awkward pause.

"So you know where we are at given time?"  
"Better have something if situation gets out of hand," he shrugged, "Having 'plan B' never hurts, right?"  
"I guess. Although I'm not sure Ratchet would approve. He just, as he says, 'wing it'. Can't say it didn't work in the past," he giggled."Well, he must be very good at winging it. It never works for me," Shadow shrugged, "Anyway, enough of procrastination. I still need to find a safe entry point in Wilderness for you. You should go and rest. Or at least try to. I'll be back shortly."

With that, he stepped off and disappeared. Clank shook his head. Even though their acquaintance was warming up to them, he still was secretive. He then decided to go back to Ratchet and try to have some rest one more time.

* * *

 _Enjoy peace while it lasts._


End file.
